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How You Are Being Spied on and Manipulated on the Internet

Internet. Maybe not every person can give a precise definition of this word, but it is safe to say that even small kids know about the existence of “magic something” where you can find a lot of things to learn.

There is the exact time of birth of the Internet – October 29, 1969, when for the first time a connection was established between the remote nodes in the network ARPANET. For decades after that, programs, systems and network protocols have been developed, till the concept of the World Wide Web was born in 1989. It is worth noting that the root cause of the creation of a global system of integrated global computer networks was strategic. Since there was an arms race between the USSR and the USA, America needed to provide itself with a reliable system of information transmission in case of war.

Now the Internet is a huge information bank, and the areas of its use are multi-faceted: this electronic library contains a large number of works of literature, music, films, online radio and TV streaming, communication, social networking, and numerous news-based content projects, and much more. In our time it is difficult to imagine life without the Internet. But do we really know anything about how this global information resource is used by security services in certain countries?

It is possible to compile a dossier and make a kind of psychological profile of every person who has ever used the Internet. With the help of a certain kind of programs it is not too difficult. They know what you did today, what you were looking for in the search engines, whom you talked to, what books you read, what your interests are. They know your circle of friends and relatives and even your income, since you tell your friends where and how you spent your vacation, and share your views on a number of issues. Perhaps someone will say: “So what? I have nothing to hide.” But another question is what purpose is this done for? And how to avoid control over our personal lives?

Everyone has heard about the high-profile case of Edward Joseph Snowden, an American technical assistant who worked for the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency. In the early summer of 2013, Edward gave the media classified information about total surveillance of security services of USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada on communications between citizens of different countries around the world, using… read more